most skilful naturalist, added the patriotic virtues which had invested him with the noble character of an apostle of liberty. I was present at one of these entertainments, when the most beautiful woman out of three hundred was selected to place a crown of laurels upon the white head of the American philosopher, and two kisses upon his cheeks. Even in the palace of Versailles, Franklin's medallion was sold under the king's eyes, in the exhibition of Sevres porcelain. The legend of this medallion was

'Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.'

"The king never declared his opinion upon an enthusiasm which his correct judgment, no doubt, led him to blame; however, the Countess Diana having, to keep up her character as a woman of superior talent, entered with considerable warmth into the idolatry of the American delegate, a jest was played off upon her, which was kept secret enough, and may give us some idea of the private sentiments of Louis XVI. He had a vase de nuit made at the Sevres manufactory, at the bottom of which was the medallion, with its fashionable legend, and he sent the utensil to the Countess Diana, as a New-Year's gift. The queen spoke out more plainly about the part France was taking respecting the independence of the American colonies, and constantly opposed it. Far was she from foreseeing that a revolution at such a distance could excite one in which the day would come when a misguided populace would drag her from her palace to a death equally unjust and cruel. She only saw something ungenerous in the method which France adopted of checking the power of England."

This anecdote shows how selfish was the sympathy accorded by the French monarch to the cause of American Independence-if, indeed, any thing was wanting to show us that. As a further commentary on this sympathy, and of the morality of our generous friends, take another anecdote:

"An incessant underhand war was carried on between the friends and partisans of M. de Choiseul, who were called the Austrians, and those who sided with Messieurs d'Aiguillon, de Maurepas and de Vergennes, who, for the same reason, kept up the intrigues carried on at court and in Paris against the queen. Marie Antoinette, on her part, supported those who had suffered in this political quarrel, and it was this feeling which led her to ask for a revision of the proceedings against Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Moutier. The first, a colonel and inspector of artillery, and the second, a proprietor of a foundry at St. Etienne, were, under the ministry of the Duke d'Aiguillon, condemned to imprisonment for twenty years and a day, for having withdrawn from the arsenals of France, by order of the Duke de Choiseul, a vast number of muskets, which were thrown out as being of no value except as old iron, while, in point of fact, the greater

part of those muskets were immediately embarked and sold to the Americans. It appears that the Duke de Choiseul imparted to the queen, as grounds of defence for the accused, the political views which led him to authorize that reduction and sale in the manner in which it had been executed. What rendered the case of Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Moutier more unfavourable was, that the artillery officer who made the reduction in the capacity of inspector was, through a clandestine marriage, brother-in-law of the owner of the foundry who became the purchaser of the rejected arms.”

2. An Easter Offering. By FREDRIKA BREMER, author of “The Neighbours," &c. Translated by MARY HOWITT. New-York: Harper & Brothers.

1850.

THIS is not a story, as the reader may suppose, but a slight volume, containing two sketches of life and society in the icy North, from which the writer-now a visitor among us-comes. The first of these sketches is one of domestic life, in the marriage state-a pleasing picture of purity and gentle sensibilities. In the course of this little picture, Miss Bremer, in an aside to the reader, thus unfolds a startling revelation in regard to her own feelings. She may well anticipate the perils of such a statement.

"I now take the opportunity," says she, " of making a confession which I have often had upon my lips, but have hesitated to make from the fear of drawing upon myself the hatred of every married woman. But now I will run the risk-so now for it-some time or other people must unburden their hearts. I confess, then, that I never find, and never have found, a man more lovable, more captivating, than when he is a married man; that is to say, a good married man. A man is never so handsome, never so perfect in my eyes, as when he is married, as when he is a husband, and the father of a family, supporting, in his manly arms, wife and children, and the whole domestic circle, which, in his entrance into the married state, closes around him and constitutes a part of his home and his world. He is not merely ennobled by this position, but he is actually beautified by it. Then he appears to me as the crown of creation, and it is only such a man as this who is dangerous to me, and with whom I am inclined to fall in love. But then propriety forbids it, and Moses and all European legislators declare it to be sinful, and all married women would consider it a sacred duty to stone me."

She afterwards takes care to tell us, however, and thus frees herself measurably from the perils which she might otherwise incur at the hands of those who love their lords-that while she thus prefers the married gentlemen, yet she also prefers to see them happy with their

wives. Amiable creature! "The contemplation of no happiness makes me so happy as that between married people.”

"Life in the North" is the title of the second paper. This is rather a review or a magazine article than a sketch or portrait. It gives us an outline of Danish and Swedish literature, as well as of their people and society-of Ochlenschlägen, Thorwaldsen, Ingemann, Möller, Heiberg, Andersen, and many others, supplying many of the deficiencies in our knowledge of this portion of the literature and art of the old world.

3. Sketches and Rambles. By J. T. HEADLEY. New-York: Baker & Scribner. 1850.

In our last, noticing the "Miscellanies" of the same writer, we referred to the curious liberty which had been taken with his works by a piratical publisher. Our author pleads that a similar usurpation of his rights, by the same party, has forced him to a premature publication of the present volume. He has endeavoured to make it more worthy of public patronage, by a revision of the old and the addition of much new material. The volume consists of twentynine chapters. In these, our author shows himself among the Alps, and describes for us the scenery of the Swiss; he next conducts us from Brussels to Paris, and talks of travel in the diligence. In France he gives us mementoes of Napoleon, of Josephine, of Robespierre; takes us to the Chamber of Peers, introduces us to Marshal Soult; shows us Guizot in the tribune; and we wander with him afterwards to the garden of Luxemburg, the catacombs, and elsewhere. Eight or ten pleasant chapters are consumed thus in showing us the lions, and the dens and retreats and woods and groves and gardens of the lions, of Paris and France; and these shown, we cross the channel, to similar sights and scenes in England. London and its lions, the men of letters, politics and arms, Peel, Campbell, Wellington, Brougham, Melville, Lyndhurst, the queen, the Parliament and Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, the Tower, Regalia, Bank, Oxford, Warwick Castle and Kennilworth, Birmingham, Liverpool, Wales, these topics, various enough, consume quite as pleasantly a dozen chapters more. Some half dozen chapters are then assigned to the Waldenses, sketches of their rise and progress as a sect, the events in their history, their persecutions, their battles and their fate. The contents are ample to inspire curiosity; and, with all his faults, Mr. Headley rewards it. His sketches of travel are quite readable. As a travelling companion, indeed, rather than as an historian or essayist, we like him. His mercurial temperament, eager remark, vivacity and freedom of mood, ease of deportment, and vigilant observation, are all companionable and valuable travelling qualities, and were he not always in such a monstrous hurry, we should be content that he should always write the history of the expedition.

4. Southey's Remains. 1. Southey's Commonplace Book. First and Second Series. Edited by his son-in-law, JOHN WOOD WARTER, B. D. New-York: Harper & Brothers. 1850. 2. The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. Edited by his son, the Rev. CHARLES CUTHBERT SOUTHEY, M. A. New-York: Harper & Brothers. Parts 1-2-3. 1850.

THE excellent collection of curious and valuable matter, drawn from every variety of source-history, chronicle, travel, romance— which we owe to Robert Southey, affords not only a vast fund of highly readable miscellaneous matter, but is a perfect storehouse for the student who would spare the pains of groping through musty records and almost forgotten volumes. Many of the sources from which Southey drew his materials are almost unavailable to the American, and certainly to the ordinary reader. In researches of this sort, his appetite was that of a cormorant. We, at least, should be grateful for the industry which has accumulated this singularly various collection. The latter volume, by the way, contains a great deal of matter peculiarly interesting to the American student :--anecdotes, statements of curious facts, wonderful traditions, rich descriptions, gathered from Dutch, Spanish, French and English explorers, at an early period, in the forests and along the rivers of the new world. His Life and Correspondence, equally voluminous and full of instruction, will be reserved for notice hereafter, when all the parts are published.

5. The History of the Consulate and Empire under Napoleon; forming a Sequel to the History of the French Revolution. By M. A. THIERS, Member of the French Academy, &c. Translated from the French by D. F. CAMPBELL; with Notes and Additions by HENRY W. HERBERT. Parts 1 to 10 inclusive. Philadelphia: A. Hart, late Carey & Hart. 1850.

THIS interesting and valuable work reaches us quite too slowly. Revolutions in France do not seem quite so favourable to French literature as the social millenium which that mercurial people teach and anticipate would seem to promise. Nor do they promise very favourably for M. Thiers, as a politician. At all events, there would seem no good reason for the tardy progress of the labour which he has so long had in hand, if the material for which has been long in possession. But, we must not complain. When finished, this history will become a standard, and occupy, no doubt, a high rank with those chronicles of remarkable periods and nations to which we refer daily, as for a necessary food. Not remarkable as a philosopher, M. Thiers is yet an excellent writer, and an acute scrutinizer of events and characters. His account of the Consulate and Empire will, probably, supersede all others. The English translation is a very good one.

6. Latter Day Pamphlets. Edited by THOMAS CARLYLE. NewYork edition: Harper & Brothers. Boston edition: Phillips, Sampson & Co.

1850.

HERE are two very neat editions of Carlyle's Latter Day Pamphlets, one of those publications which cannot be dismissed in a single paragraph. We must reserve it for a future moment of greater space and leisure. Carlyle has offended the people of the North, since he has come out, sensibly, philosophically, and like a man, superior to cant and false philanthropy, in favour of negro slavery. They now discover that he is a fool, a twattler, and, like Father Mathew, has lived just a year too long. We perceive but little falling off, in these pamphlets, from the stern, old, prophetic Carlyle whom we have known before. "He repeats himself!" cry aloud the donkeys of literature; as if they did not repeat themselves, day after day, to the eternal sickening of all good men's stomachs as if Isaiah, and all the prophets had not need, hourly, to repeat themselves, since the wretched communities to which they addressed entreaty and imprecation, in vain, were also repeating themselves, with increasing vice and venom, with neither remorse nor understanding. But the wonder is, to see so many of our Southern presses-not having read these pamphlets-actually repeating the clamours of their Yankee file-leaders-actually denouncing, in their abominable blindness, one of their best friends and champions. What if Carlyle does sneer at the American people as a race of bores: we need not be solicitous in the defence of the Yankee part of the nation. And, it is this part which has been boring him, and all other English writers, by visit and letter, until the best tempered person in the world might well be angry.

7. Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt Book; a useful guide for large or small families, containing directions for cooking, preserving, pickling, &c. Phila: A Hart, late Carey & Hart. 1850.

WE omit more than half of the ample title page of this volume, containing a catalogue, beginning with soups and ending with scents, to say nothing of the reference to the ample body of laws, provided in the thousand and one formulas, for preparing farina and Indian. meal into tea cakes and hoe cakes. The volume is a third edition, and unquestionably the most ample and valuable collection of authorities, for the due concoction of creature comforts of all sorts, which has ever honoured the American press. We may commend it safely. Nay, we do so with a feeling of equal reverence and pleaSuch books have a sacred unction about them that forbids levity. We would as soon think of speaking lightly of this manual as of the shade of the excellent Mrs. Glass; or the spirit, roving in

sure.